Other editions of book Just So Stories

"Just So Stories" is a classic of children's literature, and one of Rudyard Kipling's best known books. It was published in 1902, as a collection of the stories he told his daughter Josephine at bedtime; the little girl insisted that the stories be told "just so" or she would wake up and add the missing sentence, eventually making all these stories like charms, effective if untouched. They depict how one animal or another acquired its distinctive features: delight your children with the tale of how the camel got his lump, how the leopard got his spots, and why rhinos have folds in their skins and bad tempers, among many others. This audio includes four different stories : How The Whale Got His Throat, How The Camel Got His Hump, How The Rhinoceros Got His Skin and How The Leopard Got His Spots. Read by Katie Haigh.

Once upon a time, O my Best Beloved . . . So begins this classic collection of gloriously fanciful tales of how things in the world came to be as they are. This collection includes the story of how the lazy camel found himself with a hump and how the insatiable curiosity of the elephant earned him his long trunk. It reveals how the whale was given a throat, and why every rhinoceros has great folds in his skin and a very bad temper. We also find out about the cunning cat that walked by itself, and how clever little Taffy and her Daddy Tegumai made the first alphabet. Rudyard Kipling first entertained his own children with these delightful, warm, and humorous stories, which he later wrote down for publication in 1902. Conjuring up distant lands and exotic jungles, they are bewitching for both children and adults. This sumptuous volume offers the complete and unabridged text, including the often-missing 13th story, "The Tabu Tal," which Kipling added for the American edition in 1903.

Here is the complete and unabridged collection of Rudyard Kipling's delightful Just So Stories, which he first told to his own children before setting them down on paper: How the Camel Got His Hump, How the Leopard Got His Spots, How the Elephant Got His Trunk, The Butterfly that Stamped, and many others. Written in the late 1800s and first published in 1902, these enchanting animals remain unforgettable, over 100 years later. To hear these magic fables by a master of children's literature is to enjoy them.

The delightful tales of whales and cats and kangaroos and crabs – everything from how the camel got in a humph (and got his hump!) to how the alphabet was invented. Enchanting and funny, these fantastical stories continue to delight each and every generation. With an inspiring written, inspiring introduction by Jonathan Stroud, author of the Bartimaeus trilogy, Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling is one of the twelve wonderful classic stories being relaunched in Puffin Classics in March 2008.

Thirteen classic children’s stories from the Nobel Prize–winning author of The Jungle Book. Inspired by the bedtime stories Rudyard Kipling told his own daughter, Josephine, the charming tales in Just So Stories, including “How the Leopard Got His Spots” and “How the Camel Got His Hump,” attempt to answer the many questions children have about animals. “Children love these stories as well because of their extraordinary ingenuity and inventiveness. Kipling has an Aesopian understanding of animals, of our dealings with them and our curious interrelatedness, interdependence, how we can learn about our own strange behaviour, our vanities and our foolishness, through them and through our relationship with them.” —Michael Morpurgo, The Guardian “It does for very little children much what the Jungle Books did for older ones. It is artfully artless, in its themes, in its repetitions, in its habitual limitation, and occasional abeyance, of adult humor. It strikes a child as the kind of yarn his father or uncle might have spun if he had just happened to think of it; and it has, like all good fairy-business, a sound core of philosophy.” —The Atlantic

Generations of children have delighted to Kipling's Just So Stories and their whimsical explanations for the reasons behind certain animals' distinctive physical characteristics. This new unabridged edition contains all 12 of these imaginatively conceived tales from a master storyteller."The Elephant's Child" reveals how pachyderms came by their trunks, and "The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo" discloses the origins of that creature's unique anatomy. "The Cat That Walked by Himself" offers a beguiling description of the special relationship between cats and those they allow to shelter them. Other fables include "How the Camel Got His Hump," "How the Whale Got His Throat," "How the Leopard Got His Spots," "How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin," and five others.This timeless treasury, now available in a modestly priced edition, promises memorable amusement not only for the children of today but also for yesterday's children, the adults who may remember hearing or reading the stories when they were young.

"Just So Stories" is Rudyard Kipling's classic collection of animal fables and poetry. The following stories are included in the collection along with Kipling's original illustrations: How The Whale Got His Throat, How The Camel Got His Hump, How The Rhinoceros Got His Skin, How The Leopard Got His Spots, The Elephant's Child, The Sing-Song Of Old Man Kangaroo, The Beginning Of The Armadillos, How The First Letter Was Written, How The Alphabet Was Made, The Crab That Played With The Sea, The Cat That Walked By Himself, and The Butterfly That Stamped.

Designed to appeal to the book lover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautifully bound pocket-sized gift editions of much loved classic titles. Bound in real cloth, printed on high quality paper, and featuring ribbon markers and gilt edges, Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure. These twelve magical tales tell, among other things, how the camel got his hump, the leopard his spots, the elephant his trunk, how the alphabet was made and how a butterfly caused mayhem at the court of King Solomon when he stamped. The Just So Stories are one of the enduring classics of children's literature, not only for their wit, enchantment and language but also for Kipling's own illustrations.With an Afterword by Marcus ClaphamStories in this edition:How the Whale Got His Throat How the Camel Got His Hump How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin How the Leopard Got His Spots The Elephant's Child/How the Elephant got his Trunk The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo The Beginning of the Armadillos How the First Letter Was Written How the Alphabet Was Made The Crab That Played with the Sea The Cat That Walked by Himself The Butterfly That Stamped

Kipling's own drawings, with their long, funny captions, illustrate his hilarious explanations of How the Camel Got His Hump, How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin, How the Armadillo Happened, and other animal How's. He began inventing these stories in his American wife's hometown of Brattleboro, Vermont, to amuse his eldest daughter--and they have served ever since as a source of laughter for children everywhere.